What the hell happened to Texas?Follow

We should just go with Arkham Asylum.

Sure, then it won't make me dressing as Batman look nearly as silly.

It is? So conservative countries like China have great records when it comes to dumping people in prison and letting them rot?



There's a difference between tough on crime and "toss em in prison and throw away the key". It's usually a combination of factors. The right is much most willing to accept laws which allow the specifics of the case to determine the resulting penalties and tends to drive for greater maximums to ensure that people who commit truly heinous crimes are penalized heavily. But it's the left who fight for standardized sentences for a crime based on statute. This creates a condition where in order to punish the worst offenders sufficiently you end out over punishing the majority as well.


I would not simplify the result as just a "conservative/liberal" issue. It's more complicated than that (at least in the US).

Edited, Oct 19th 2011 1:58pm by gbaji

Most of the tough on crime stuff, and the topic of this article is about minimum mandatory sentences, not maximum ones. And most if not all the talk of minimum mandatory sentences comes from the right. This has nothing to do with the worst offenders, it's all about putting people in jail who don't necessarily need to be in jail, and removing the judges ability to find alternate solutions.

Ugly addressed the other part.

Edited, Oct 19th 2011 4:15pm by Xsarus

Assuming we agree that a modern liberal is someone who believes that the government has a responsibility to directly involve itself in some aspect of society in order to make society better, then the same label applies. Communism is just a more extreme example, but is a logical extension. The whole "socially conservative and economically liberal" bit is BS. Both are "liberal".

One of the key arguments that conservatives use against applying those modern liberal principles is that they increase the amount of power the government has over our lives and inevitably this will lead to abuses of that power. Liberals love to try to deflect this by labeling the over-authoritarian result "social conservatism", but it's not. Both the economic and social aspects are connected. The more the government takes responsibility for your economic outcomes, the more it *must* control your social activities. You just don't like the result, so you apply a different label to it so as to not have to face the consequences of your own policies.

Well, that or you just honestly bought that BS when it was taught to you by a liberal professor in school.

Edited, Oct 19th 2011 4:05pm by gbaji

My policies? I'm a fucking conservative you tit, who happens to be socially liberal.

While I know that the label "social conservative" has come to have a specific meaning (thanks to liberals repeating it over and over), but if your social position is that government should be as minimally involved in your social actions and choices as possible, you are a social conservative. I disagree with the label you're choosing to apply is all.

You've bought the liberal BS. Modern conservatism is based on classical liberalism. Modern liberalism is based on social liberalism. If we're to use those labels as references to the respective political positions, then it is conservatives who want to minimize government control over our lives, and liberals who want to do the opposite. When I was a kid, I repeated the same "fiscally conservative and socially liberal" language. Over time, I've realize that it's total BS.

My god, if you could step back and see yourself.

I see myself and my positions completely clearly and absent the tinted glasses of assumption which most people today seem to wear. Why not actually state what you disagree with and why rather than just make vague statements about me?

You wear the tinted glasses of assumption that tell you that you can objectively review yourself and your positions.

Gbaji views his positions without the biasing tint of reality. I don't give a **** what you define your version of conservatism Gbaji. I'm talking about the right as it actually exists.

They'll even force you to marry gay people!